Apparatus for manipulating covers of industrial ovens



United States Patent [72] Inventor Martin Bender Duesseldorf-Eller, Germany [2]} Appl. No. 748,493 [22] Filed July 29, 1968 [45] Patented Oct. 27, 1970 [73] Assignee Hartlng, Kuhn 8: Co. Maschinenfabrik Gmbll Duesseldorf, Germany [32] Priority July 29, 1967 [33] Germany [3 l l H 63,

[54] APPARATUS FOR'MANIPULATING COVERS OF INDUSTRIAL OVENS v 12 Claims, 5 Drawing Figs.

[52] 0.8. (I 212/4, 202/262;2l4ll8 [5 1] Int. Cl. B66c 13/00 [50] Field ofSearch 212/4; 2l4/l8(PA)' 202/251, 262; 268/10 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,142,39l 7/1964 Tweit 202/262 3.4l9.l0? 12/1968 Kostochka.... 212/4 3,437,563 4/1969 Canivez 2l2l4 Primary Examiner-Harvey C. l-lomsby AtmrneyMichael S. Striker ABSTRACT: An apparatus for manipulating a magnetizable cover for an upwardly directed opening in an industrial oven includes an elongated member which is arranged to be positioned upwardly of the opening in substantial parallelism with the substantially horizontal general plane thereof. The

member has a longitudinally adjacent first and second portions. An electromagnet is mounted on the first portion and has a contact face which can be placed into magnetic contact with the cover. The electromagnetic means is rotatable about a vertical axis. First support means is located above and connected with the second portion of the member and swingably mounts the latter for universal movement with reference to the opening to maintain the contact face substantially in parallelism with the general plane of the opening. Second support means is located above and connected with the first support means and mounts the same for substantially vertical movement with reference to the opening, as well as for turning movement about a substantially vertical axis laterally offset from the opening so that, when the cover is magnetically gripped by the electromagnet, the latter may be rotated to thread the cover into or out of the opening and thereafter the cover may be raised by the electromagnet and pivotally moved to a position laterally of the opening, or returned to the opening from such position.

I cl-- 13 APPARATUS FOR MANIPULATING COVERS OF INDUSTRIAL OVENS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to lifting apparatus, and more particularly to apparatus for manipulating covers for industrial ovens.

Certain industrial ovens, for instance horizontal coke ovens have upwardly directed charging openings which are provided with covers provided in the openings. These covers must periodically be removed, for instance to admit a new charge into the oven, and thereupon must be restored to a position where they close the openings. For this purpose it is known to provide electromagnetic devices, including an electromagnet which can magnetically engage the cover and which is mounted for rotation so as to thread the cover into or out of the opening. The electromagnet can furtherbe raised and lowered so as to remove the cover from the opening when it is unthreaded, or restore it to the opening prior to being threaded thereinto.

Arrangements of this type are known wherein the electromagnet is suspended from a hanger bearing which in turn is so mounted as to maintain the contact face of the electromagnet in a plane substantially parallel with the general plane of the opening to which the cover is to be introduced or from which it is to be removed. With this type of arrangement the construction is such that the electromagnet will have a tendency to return to this predetermined position even if there are deflecting stresses. The advantage of such arrangements is that the time-consuming precise positioning of the charging lorry is avoided by the fact that the raising and lowering device may have an eccentric position relative to the cover of the charging opening during the process of raising or setting the cover. It is therefore possible to use these devices successfully, even if the charge openings are not all located in line, a construction which is particularly found in older coke-oven batteries.

Furthermore, arrangements of this type also assure that if the raising and rotating device eccentrically engages the cover of the charging opening, the cover can nevertheless be rotated and raised from the charging opening in a horizontal positioning concentrically with reference to seat. Even if there is an eccentric engagement of the raising and rotating device with the cover, that is eccentric with reference to the vertical axis of the cover, the cover is held in its horizontal position when it is raised from the charge opening for the reasons set forth above. This is still assured when the cover is fitted to the charging opening eccentrically of the charging opening axis. All of this is, of course, obtained without the need for manual manipulation and supervision by personnel.

However, devices of this known type suffer from a variety of disadvantages and it is a general object of the present invention to overcome these disadvantages.

More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to improve these known devices in such a manner that the removal and later refixing of the cover for the charging opening is speeded up significantly, whereby the time required for a charging operation is reduced.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Pursuant to the above objects, and others which willbecome apparent hereafter, one feature of my invention resides in the provision of apparatus for manipulating a magnetizable cover for an upwardly directed opening in an industrial oven or the like. This apparatus comprises an elongated member arranged to be positioned upwardly of the opening in substantial parallelism with the substantially horizontal general plane thereof, this member having longitudinally adjacent first and second portions. Electromagnetic means is mounted on the first portion and has a contact face which is placeable into magnetically attracting contact with the cover. First support means is located above and connected with the second portion of the member and swingably mounts the latter, and thereby the electromagnetic means, for universal movement with reference to the opening so as to maintain the contact face substantially in parallelism with the general plane of the opening. Finally, second support means is provided which is located above and connected with the first support means. The second support means mounts the first support means, and thereby the elongated member, for substantially vertical movement with reference to the opening, as well as for turning movement about a substantially vertical axis laterally offset from the opening so that, when the cover is magnetically gripped by the electromagnetic means, it may be raised from and pivotally moved to a position laterally of the opening for exposing the same, and vice versa.

According to my invention I provide a gear which, together with the electromagnet of the electromagnetic means, is mounted on the first portion of the elongated member. This gear is coupled with the drive motor. With this construction it will be appreciated that, immediately after the elongated member carrying at the electromagnet the magnetically attracted cover of the charging opening, has been swung away from the charging opening and out of the way of the charging hopper for the opening, this hopper can be lowered to the charging opening and a charge of the oven can be effected, for instance with coke from a coke or coal container such as a lor' ry. Thereafter, the charging opening can be very quickly closed again by lowering the cover of the charging opening into closing position.

Advantageously, the aforementioned gear will be a worm gear, the worm of which is connected with a universally jointed shaft connecting it with the drive motor. The worm wheel which cams with the worm is secured on the outer peripheral surface of a cup-shaped member which is rotatably mounted on the elongated member in a plane parallel to the general plane of the latter and which is tightly but releasably connected with the electromagnet at the lower portion of the cup-shaped member which extends through the elongated member. This connection with the electromagnet is in spaced relationship so that collector rings of a collector ring body located in the cup-shaped member cooperate with the conductors of a direct-current source. This provides for an extremely compact construction wherein, due to its location above the elongated member, the gear is protected even against the short but nevertheless deleterious influence of burning gas issuing from the charging opening when the same is uncovered.

According to a further feature of the invention the supporting frame constituting the first support means for the elongated member is disposed laterally from the opening of the charging hopper which is provided on a lorry, and is connected with'a raising device by means of a movable thread coupling having a thread of steep pitch. A screw cap is provided for this device which is connected and positioned against rotation but for vertical displacement in a vertically extending fixed supporting tube. A screw spindle is connected to the supporting frame and is axially displaceable as well as circumferentially displaceable in the fixed supporting tube in dependence on the vertical stroke of the raising device. Advantageously, the upper side of the supporting frame is secured to a vertical carrier sleeve which is elastically mounted on a supporting rod which coaxially extends through the carrier sleeve.

The vertical carrier sleeve may advantageously be guided for axial displacement, but without freedom of rotary movement, within a pivoting sleeve which is mounted on a cross member, the latter in turn being secured to the upper end of the aforementioned supporting rods. The free ends of the cross member engage in guide slots provided in the outer fixed supporting tube so as to permit vertical lowering movement and horizontal turning movement of the supporting frame with the elongated member. The upper end of the pivoting sleeve is secured to the screw spindle. This provides for a controlled movement of the supporting frame and the electromagnet,

respectively, which prevents any incorrect handling because the raising device can be regulated to a preset course which isactuated in dependence on the position of the lorry.

The guideslots mentioned above are advantageously posi 1 further raising of. the free endsof the crossmemberin the shorter vertical portion provides nonrotatable positioning of responding number ,of universal joints. The latter may be formed as knuckle joints or as ball joints.

In any case, two of-the universal'joints 18 adjacent to every link rod 17 are spaced from one another by a distance which i should be as large as possible. In other words, they are provided as near as possible .to the hanger bearing and the sup- .porting frame, respectively, so that the hanger bearing and withit an electromagnet 19 mounted: ona first laterally extending portion thereof, identified with reference numeral 16, may be capable of undergoing universal movement within a .wide range of possibilities. The electromagnetl9 is mounted at the underside of the portion 16a andis coupled with a worm gear 20 for rotation thereby. The worm gear 20 in turn is conthe entire construction, including the'electromagnet and the t cover attached thereto, in a raised normal position.

A bearing spacer will advantageously be provided which is mounted at the undersideof the screw gap so that the free ends of thecrossmember penetrate in spaced relationship through the bearing spacer whose lower end constitutes a guide for the pivoting sleeve and which is nonrotatably but axiallydisplaceably guided in a slot of the fixed supporting tube. The supporting frame can. be elastically suspended by constituting the carrier sleeve with a traverse member located in the upper longitudinal section of the carrier sleeve, the traverse member being provided with a bore which is somewhat larger than the diameter of the supporting rod so that the traverse member can serve as an abutment for a pressure spring surrounding the supporting rod downwardly of the traverse member and abutting with its other end against the latter and with its lower end against a thrust washer which is secured by nuts screwed to the lower end of the supporting rod.

nected with an electric motor 21, also mounted on the hanger bearing, via a universally jointed drive shaft 22. The hanger bearing, which is positioned in a substantially horizontal plane and the electromagnet, which is rotatable in aplane parallel to the plane of the hanger bearing, may be subjected to universal movement, the extent of this mobility being determined by the length of the link rods 17 and the distance betweenthe universal joints l8.associated therewith. Thus, the cover of the charging opening of an industrial oven, which charging opening is identified with reference numeral 24, may be threaded into or out of its seat by rotation of the electromagnet even if the electromagnet is eccentricallypositioned relative to the cover 23. Of course, the worm gear may be replaced with a chain drive if desired. I

Mounted for vertical movement within a hood 29, by means of a lever 27. arranged at the lower end of a charging hopper 28, is a charging tube 25 which in FIG. 1 is illustrated as located above the charging opening: Thus, after the electromagnet with the attached cover has been swung out of alignment with the charging opening 24, the gases and flames The novel features; which are:considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantagesthereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEFDESCRIPTION of THE DRAWING DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Discussing now the drawing in detail it will be seen that in.

FIG. ,1 reference numeral 10 identifies a partially shown lorry including a frame 11 which carries a supporting tube 12. A rocking lever 13 is swingably mounted in a vertical plane about an axis 14, anda supporting frame 15 constituting the first supporting meansof. my apparatus is suspended from the free end 13a of the rocking lever 13. The supporting frame 15 .is thus vertically displaceable upwardly and downwardly and it is turnably guided in the fixed supporting tube 12. A hanger issuing fromthe now exposed charging opening 24 will be channeled into the hood and thereafter be extracted by suction with the gases being cleaned or otherwise treated. The charging hopper 28 is connected, as shown, to a coal or coke container 29 provided in conventional manner with a spinning distributor plate 30. v

FIG. 1 illustrates that the supporting frame 15 is mounted laterally of the opening of the charging hopper and is secured at its upper side to a vertical carrier. sleeve 31. Located within when the electromagnet is turned by the associated gear. The

substantially the upper half of its longitudinal extension (compare FIG. 3) the carrier sleevehas provided therein a traverse member 32 which in turn is formed with a bore 34 whose diameter is slightly larger than the outer diameter of a supporting rod 33 extending coaxially with a carrier sleeve. The traverse member 32 is adapted to serve as an abutment for a pressure spring 35 which bears against it with its upper end whereas its lower end is supported on a thrust washer 36. which in turn is secured to the lower end of the supporting rod by the nuts 37 which are screwed onto the latter. Thus, the effective load acting on the cover of the charging opening can be adjusted as desired, so that rotationof the cover is assured upper end of the supporting rod 33 is secured'to a cross member 38, the two free ends 38a and38b of which are providedwith guide rollers 39. These latter are located in guide I slots 40 which in the illustrated embodiment are diametrically opposite one another and provided. in the fixed supporting bearing 16in form of an elongated member ,is freely suspended on the vertically movable supporting frame 15 by means of four link rods l7'of identical length. The-ends of these rods 17 are connected with the supporting frame and the hanger. bearingvia universal joints 18 whichare positioned 1 tube 12. One of these two guide slots 40 is diagrammatically shown as to its outline at the right-hand side of FIG. 3 where it will be seen that each of the guide slots 40consists of a longer vertical section 40a which serves to guide the respective guide roller 39 during lowering andraising movement of the electromagnet, that is the positioning thereof after the associated guide roller 39 has moved out of the section 40a and over the full extent of the section 40b, can be fixed by further raising the cross member within the section 40c of the guide slot 40, which section 40c is also vertically positioned and extends upwardly from the remote end of the section 40d but is shorter than the section 40a. I

FIG. 3 further shows the position of a pivoting sleeve 41 which is connected with the cross member 38 and is arranged coaxially with reference to the fixed supporting tube 12. The inner wall surface of the pivoting sleeve 41 is provided with grooves 41a and 41b and the carrier sleeve 31 for the supporting frame is displaceable in coaxial relationship with the pivot ing sleeve but is prevented from rotating relative thereto. A screw spindle 42 is welded into the upper opening of the pivoting sleeve 41 coaxially thereto, and is provided with a thread 43 having a'steep pitch. A nut 44 cooperates with the thread 43 and is axially displaceable along the inside wall of the supporting tube 12 via a guide ring 45. A screw cap 46 is threaded onto the upper end of the nut 44 and sealingly covers the screw spindle; A connecting member 48 is hingedly connected with the eye 47 andin turn is articulately connected to the free end 13a of the rocking lever 13 shown in FIG. 1.

Still referring to P16. 3, it will be seen that a bearing spacer 49 is provided at the underside of the nut 44. The bearing spacer is penetrated in spaced relationship by the free ends 38a, 38b of the cross member 38 and the lower end of the bearing spacer 49 is provided exteriorly thereof with a guide ring 49a which provides for a coaxial guidance of the pivoting sleeve 41 relative to the fixed supporting tube 12. A key 49b is guided in an axially extending slot 120 provided in the interior surface of the fixed supporting tube 12, thus assuring that the bearing spacer 49 cannot be rotated relative to the tube 12. An inner guide ring 49 constitutes a bearing for the lower part of the pivoting sleeve 41. Thus, the screw spindle 42 is connected withthe supporting frame and is axially displaceable as well as rotationally displaceable in the fixed supporting tube 12 in dependence on the vertical stroke of the device under the influence of the weight of the supporting frame 15 and the hanger bearing 16. The pivoting movement is automatically provided by the steep pitch of the thread coupling 42, 44, 46 at such time as the free ends 38a, 38b of the cross member 38 reach the horizontal portion 40b of the respective guide slots 40, namely as they move out of the vertical portion 40a as the device is used to raise the cover, or out of the vertical portion 400 as the device is used to lower the cover.

Coming now to FIGS. 4 and 5 it will be seen that these illustrate, on an enlarged scale and with parts broken away for a better viewing, details of the hanger bearing '16, and specifically of the gear 20 and the electromagnet 19 mounted thereon. The gear 20 is a worm gear consisting of a worm 50 and a worm wheel 51. The worm 50 is connected with the universally jointed shaft 22 which in turn is coupled with a conventional drive motor 21. The worm wheel 51 is shrink fitted onto the outer surface of a pot-shaped or cup-shaped member 52. The latter is rotatably supported on the lower portion of a casing 54 by means of an antifriction bearing 53 which is secured in the hanger bearing concentrically with reference to an opening 55 provided in the same. A carrier pin 56 extends downwardly coaxially to the vertical turning axis or rotating axis of the cup-shaped member 52. This pin extends through a central aperture in the electromagnet 19 and is detachably secured to the underside of the cup-shaped member 52 by means of a wedge connection and a nut 57. The member 52 includes a cylindrical collector ring body 58 located therewithin, and provided with four collector rings which cooperate with the conductors 60 of a source of direct current, for example.

A casing 61 has an upper part and a lower part, the upper part being provided with a flange 61a and the lower part being provided with a flange 54a which are releasably connected with one another. The upper part of the casing 61 is provided with a central opening 62 and a sealing gasket 63 which is provided at the underside of the edge abounding this opening 62. The latter is diametrically traversed by a traverse member 64 provided at its underside with two pins 65. The four conductors 60 which are connected to a source of electrical energy with the electromagnet, are secured to the pins 65 and a micr'oswitch 19a is provided which is connected with nonillustrated but well known control means for the purpose of indicating that whenever the cover of the charging opening adheres to the electromagnet. How this is accomplished is wellknown in the art and need not be further discussed.

It will be appreciated that my novel construction constitutes a significant advance in the field to which it apertains because it provides for a considerable speedup in the removal and restoration of the covers of charging openings of industrial ovens. It will also be appreciated, however, that my novel apparatusmay be used for other manipulative purposes in conjunction with other applications, without departing in any way from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together, may also find a useful application in other types of constructions differing from the types described above.

While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in an apparatus for manipulating the covers of charging openings on industrial ovens, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.

Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can by applying current knowledge readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention and, therefore, such adaptations should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalence of the following claims.

lclaim:

1. Apparatus for manipulating a magnetizable cover for an upwardly directed opening in an industrial oven or the like, comprising incombination, an elongated member arranged to bepositioned upwardly of the opening in substantial parallelism with the substantially horizontal general plane thereof, said member having longitudinally adjacent first and second portions; electromagnetic means having a rotatable pivot mounted at a free end of saidfirst portion against axial displacement, said electromagnetic means having a contact face placeable into magnetic contact with said cover; first support means located above said second portion and comprising a plurality of support members having identical length and first ends and second ends; second support means comprising a vertical shaft extending above said second portion and a support element on said shaft; universal bearing means mounting said first ends on said second portion and said second ends on said support element at identical distances from the shaft axis so that said elongated member and contact face remain at all times in at least substantial parallelism with the general plane of said opening with said electromagnetic means being free to move relative to the axis of said shaft radially thereof; and a carriage above said shaft and mounting the same rotatably about its axis as well as for substantially vertical movement.

2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, said cover being arranged to be threadedly received in said opening, and .said electromagnetic means being mounted for rotary movement about an upright axis substantially paralleling said shaft axis but laterally spaced therefrom; and further comprising drive means operatively associated with said electromagnetic means for rotating the same in one direction about said upright axis to thereby turn the magnetically gripped cover in a sense unthreading it from said opening, and for rotating said electromagnetic means in a direction opposite said one direction to thereby turn the magnetically gripped cover in a sense threading it into said opening.

3. Apparatus as defined in claim 2, said drive means comprising an electric motor and gear means operatively as sociated therewith, both being mounted on said elongated member.

said drive means further comprising universal-joint drive shaft means operatively associated with said motor and said worm gear, a cup-shaped element carrying at its outer peripheral, l

, surfacerigid therewith said worm wheel and being mounted on said member for rotation in a plane parallel to the general a a plane of said member and about said upright axis,

6. Apparatus as defined inclaim 5, said cup-shaped element 1 having a lower open end penetrating said member and being tightly but-'releasably connected with said electromagnetic means; a collector ring body provided on said electromagnetic means and located in said cup-shaped element, and cooperat ing collector rings andconductors respectively provided on said body andsaid element. a I

said first and second support means, said coupling including a "screw cap connected to-said lifting means rotationallyjmmovable but with freedom of vertical displacement, a fixed supporting tube surrounding said screw cap, and a screw spincrossmember which is in turn connected to an upper end of said supporting rod; said carrier sleeve being mounted and guided in said pivoting sleeve nonrotatably but for axial displacement; said tube having a pair of guide slots each comprising an axially extending portion and a circumferentially extending portion, and said crossmember having opposite free ends respectively extendinglinto said'guide slots and connecting the upper end of said'pivo'ting sleevelwith said screw spindle.

10. Apparatusas defined in claim Q, said guide slots being located diametrally opposite one another, and each further comprising an additional axially extending portion axially and circumferentially spaced from the respective first-mentioned axially extendingportion, the respective circumferentially extending portion connecting both axially extending portions of each guide slot.

,7 11. Apparatus as defined in claim 9, further comprising a dle provided with threads of steep pitch connected with said first support means and cooperating with said screw cap and being mounted in said tube for axial displacement and for turning movement independence upon the vertical stroke of said second support means.

Y s rin located in said carrier sleeve and havin an n er end a P 8 8 PP porting rod connected with the remainder of said second sup port means and extending through said sleeve coaxially screw cap and arranged soithat said free endsof said crossmember penetrate said spacer element in spaced relationship,

said spacer element having a lowerend portion constituting a guide for said pivoting sleeve and being in turn provided at the exterior thereof with a guide portion cooperating with a slot provided in said supporting tube so that said spacer element is guided in said tube for axial movement-but prevented from rotational movement. j

12. Apparatus as defined in claim 8; further comprising a traverse member located within the'upper section of said carrier sleeve and provided with a bore having a diameter slightly larger than that of. said supporting rod, a helical pressure bearing against said traverse member and a lower end, and a thrust washer mounted on the lower end of said supporting rod with said lower end of said pressure spring bearing against said thrust washer. 

